2024-07-08: Your Intentions
- Log: 2024-07-08 Your Intentions
- Cast: Elan Ceres, Luanova Luckwright
- Where: Asticassia School of Technology
- OOC - IC Date: July 8, UC 0099 (2024)
- Summary: Luanova asks Elan some pointed questions.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
If time doesn't heal all wounds, then it can at least numb them. Elan Ceres is well-known across Asticassia as a cool, distant type, to the point where fans and detractors alike call him the Ice Prince, but he's been particularly stand-offish for the past week or so.
Except of course for that one time with Suletta and the punch-out between her bullies. He was a touch more social then.
It's perhaps for that reason, then, that he's been staying late at the Peil House hangars in a Zowort doing what might be considered extra credit. That's the assumption his Housemates make when he passes on leaving with them to remain in the cockpit for a while longer to review the controls. It's a little baffling that he'd do this without a mechanic to monitor it, but the students of Peil House are used to this behavior. They don't push it.
Eventually, when the artificial sun is setting, Elan emerges from the Zowort and takes off the helmet of his normal suit. There's a touch of strain under his inexpressive eyes. He moves onto a rising platform and presses a button to have it move him down to ground floor. From there, he moves to the mechanic's station and reviews the data there. Then he heads for the door to leave.
It's quiet, and the hangar should be empty at this point. Maybe that's why his pretty face looks tired--no one around to see. Or that's the expectation, perhaps.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
Opsec is never as good as it's assumed to be. Lua Luckwright can move more quietly and subtly than anyone assumes, but she also knows that the truth is, you often don't need to. Find some low-level person with access, tell them you stopped by beforehand and you left something behind and could they let you in to go grab it? That'll get you onto the grounds. Talk people up, ask questions about their life. Sooner or later information will spill.
That's how, when Elan Ceres exits the Peil House hangar late this evening, Luanova Luckwright is standing around undisguised in her grad student uniform, ready to intercept him from a blind spot to the side. She has a bottle of water in hand, which she holds out in offering. "Everything in working order?" she asks.
She could care less about his pretty face.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Elan stops, hand still on the door, helmet under his other arm, when Luanova approaches him. She offers him a bottle of water; he looks down at it, then up at her. With his arms both occupied, it might be understandable that he doesn't take the water bottle at first. Even after he leaves the rest of the way and lets the door shut behind him, he doesn't take it.
But he does at least answer, "Yes." Then: "What do you want?"
It's more or less an invitation to keep up the conversation. Even so, he continues walking off towards the Peil House dorms, his pace even. It's not especially brisk, but it's not especially slow, either.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
Take it or leave it. If you don't want it that's fine. She unscrews the cap and takes a swig herself. Hydration is important.
"I want you to level with me, and whether you do or not, I want to level with you about something. Then we can both be done with each other. So before I level with you, tell me straight. What are your intentions with the Holder, Suletta Mercury?"
It's important to keep pace with him for this question, to keep a good look at his face. She feigns casualness, but just the reaction to the question being asked can make a big difference.
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Hydration is important. So is being wary of people who don't like your face.
Elan does at least listen to Luanova as he walks. At this hour, there aren't any other students around; they're either back in their rooms or out to dinner. The question she asks does give him the slightest bit of pause, though.
What are his intentions for Suletta Mercury?
That's a complicated question.
It's also a question that's been asked of him in different forms with a different intent, though, and when it occurs to him that this is probably more of the same, Elan gives her a long, flat look. "Are you asking if I want to romance her? I don't."
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
A pause, and then a long, flat look. Luanova grimaces. Is that the reaction he expected?
"Then, as bluntly as I can put it. If you're working an angle with the Mercury girl, if you get close and you get whatever it is you're looking for and you move on and leave her behind not knowing what happened, a naive girl like that?"
She puts a hand on Elan's shoulder, an unwanted mockery of a friendly gesture. "That would leave a bad taste in my mouth. That's the kind of thing that would motivate someone to step in." She squeezes, firmly but not violently, and then lets go.
"Duel, participate in CANON, do all you want there. I don't care about that. Just don't toy with the country girl." She waves her free hand in the air dismissively. "That's all."
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Luanova's grimace tells Elan that he assumed wrongly. That's almost refreshing, except for the fact that she reaches out and grips his shoulder with a warning amount of strength.
This time he stops. Though Elan Ceres only knows Luanova in passing, more by reputation and a couple of scattered encounters than anything else, his impression was that she didn't care about much of anything. She even outright says she doesn't care about the duels and CANON. Something they have in common, perhaps. Even so, she seems to like Suletta enough to be bothered by the idea that Elan Ceres might be using her.
Something else they have in common.
"...It's not my intent to toy with her." He pauses. "Suletta Mercury... is my friend."
And that's true. But the way Luanova phrased that--if you get close and you get whatever it is you're looking for and you move on and leave her behind not knowing what happened--it bothers him.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
"If Suletta Mercury is really just your friend, then we have no problems," Luanova says. Her voice is even and careful. "But whatever act you are putting on here, even now, when I made a point to get you alone, I haven't forgotten that underneath is the same Elan Ceres I know." The Elan Ceres who has never made any attempt like this before to hide what a snake he is.
Elan Ceres doesn't have friends.
"So you'll forgive me if I've learned to be skeptical."
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
Elan doesn't respond for a moment, simply keeping his gaze on Luanova. His expression remains stony--but there is a certain darkness to his eyes.
"I'm skeptical of you too," he says at last. "You say 'the Elan Ceres I know,' but if I were to talk about 'the Luanova Luckwright I know,' it seems that you're the one putting on an act. Why would you go out of your way to try to protect Suletta Mercury when you don't even care enough about her to remember her name?
"One possibility does come to mind. You've been trying to curry the favor of the bride, Miorine Rembran." (At least, Miorine made that assumption aloud where Elan could hear it.) "I don't know or care what your interest in her is, but if I were truly friends with Suletta Mercury, her current groom, that could become an obstacle to your goal. Even without you openly disliking me, that would be plenty of reason to interfere."
He turns as if to walk away, but doesn't yet do so. "...You don't need to confirm or deny. It doesn't actually matter. But whatever your intentions are, I'm not interested in being your scapegoat."
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
Luanova sputters to hold back a burst of laughter. "I'm fine, Elan. I'm rich, you're rich. We're not all trying to play the grand game to have the most. I mean, I get it. I wear the mask. I learned to do it to get by. That doesn't mean I have a 'goal' here." She does know Mercury's name. But how you phrase and pace questions is part of how to gauge responses.
There is a pause, perhaps long enough to think about walking away. Then Lua's voice from behind again.
"I know Rembran thinks I'm trying to 'curry favor.' You know why I care? Because I care. Distant magnate single father who treats her like an asset to pass around? Sounds familiar. Maybe I see a little of myself in her. As for Mercury, I don't know her well, but I know people like her, and I know you and what you can do to people like her, and I'm sick of standing by and letting it happen. I'm sick of people being treated like playing pieces. I'm sick of it."
<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.
In that sense, Luanova's certainly gotten a sincere reaction out of Elan. Whether she believes it's sincere is another story. Her claim that she might have a mask but she doesn't get a goal doesn't get a whit of amusement out of him, either way.
But she says some real things of her own--real enough that he half-turns to stare her down. If she really is telling the truth--then there's something else that sounds familiar. And that digs under his apathetic defenses, enough to provoke an actual expression: a subtle mote of anger.
"You don't know me. Stop thinking you do," he says flatly.
Now he turns away again and moves to leave.
<Pose Tracker> Luanova Luckwright has posed.
"Well, that went well," Lua murmurs to herself. She's not going to stop him; the message has been relayed. Does she feel better about the situation? It's hard to say. Has Elan Ceres had a crisis of conscience? He damn well didn't seem like it at the CANON announcement. At least she can be satisfied that she has registered her attention.
"I wasn't actually thirsty," she says, looking down at the bottle of water. She eyeballs how much is left, and then takes a long swig.